The Senate decided to constitute a senatorial subcommittee tasked with investigating the APTC. They reasoned that the public had an inalienable right to know the truth about the company’s intentions. The committee was to find out whether the company planned to commit fraud, including speculation in shares. In addition, they had to determine whether the company intended to break antitrust laws by attempting to establish a transport monopoly. Finally, it was imperative to ascertain whether this private project could endanger the country’s complicated defense system.
Aslan’s lawyers explained to her that it would be very difficult to rescue the company without fundamentally changing or abandoning the project. Since the company did not have the least bit of proof of its feasibility, Aslan especially would come under fire in front of the Senate committee. It would be easier than Aslan believed for the committee to decide that she was purposely trying to hide the company’s true intentions. In that case, they were setting themselves up for the Department of Justice to intervene. An indictment of fraud seemed inevitable.
It looked pretty bad. Aslan invited Beckford to a private discussion.
“Mr. Beckford,” she said to him without any introduction, “if things go badly in the committee, I will land in prison for several years. And you will, too, of course.”
“Me?” Mr. Beckford asked, surprised. “Me? What in the world do I have to do with this goddamned mess? I don’t own a single share.”
“You are registered as the general manager of the company. ‘Cling together, swing together,’ as horse thieves say.”
“No way, ma’am. No way, not with me. Tomorrow I’ll go immediately to the closest recruitment office and I’ll reenlist in the Marine Corps. I am always welcome there. They always need good sergeants. Then I’m rid of all these worries. In any case, I’m fed up with this life here, just so you know. I’m sick and tired of it. I’ll do my own thing. Good night!”
“So, in short, you want to let me face the music by myself? And I had such high hopes for you.”
“You know as well as I do that no one asked me, ma’am.”
“It’s not as easy as you think to get away. The Marine Corps doesn’t need you, they could get anyone to scream at new recruits. For now, I still need you here and I need you desperately. Before we get sent to prison for several years, there’ll be plenty of time for you to disappear. And once you’re back with your roughnecks, no district attorney can get you out of there, certainly not for this kind of affair.”
“All right then, ma’am, what do you want? What am I supposed to do for you? At some point, I guess I have to show some gratitude for all the favors I never asked for.”
“Now that sounds quite a bit better.” Aslan laughed.
It was easy for Aslan to smuggle certain nuggets of information to the newspapers. Now, the papers implied that the company’s directors and board members, who had allegedly taken money from honest, hardworking, trusting citizens, were planning to leave the country under the pretext of going on vacation. All their passports were ready and stamped with visas for countries that would not extradite. Another report claimed that the Senate committee had arrest warrants for fraud on their desks, ready to be served. Then news appeared that the Senate committee would be ordering a hearing in the next few days, which was not true as of yet. Allegedly, the hearing was due to a series of suspicious circumstances suggesting fraudulent activity.
At the perfect moment, just as Aslan had planned, another story hit the papers like a bomb. Facing pressure on all sides, the chair of the Senate committee announced that the accused had already been asked to appear and that public proceedings were to take place on the second Thursday of the following month. He added that since the hearing was of great significance for the entire American people, it would be aired on national television, to prove that the honorable Senate committee would not be influenced by Big Business. The average Joe could judge for himself.
Aslan could not have secured better national publicity for her plan. In the most diplomatic fashion, she had managed to interest the country’s major television networks. No one in the entire country would miss this sensational drama. The television broadcast now promised to eclipse the historic hearing of a group of Hollywood screenwriters and directors accused of being Communists, who, with their films, had allegedly imposed their anti-American ideas in a typically Bolshevik manner on a naive American audience.
As accusations against the company’s board accumulated, one would have thought its shareholders would finally be tempted to cut their losses and sell their shares. If the Senate committee were to prove attempted fraud, the shares would just barely be worth the profit from a final liquidation.
Strangely, not a single share was offered for sale. There were two explanations: either all shares were in the possession of one entity, or the shareholders were firmly convinced that the project would come to fruition. With absolute certainty, they expected amazingly high dividends, maybe not in the next few weeks but surely in the next twelve or fifteen years. Delayed gratification was nothing new for the founders of American companies. The longer you waited and the larger the company, the higher the dividends would be.
11.
On Tuesday afternoon, Aslan asked: “Are you done with everything, Mr. Beckford?”
“It’s all done, ma’am. Even my pants are buttoned up.”
“Do you know what will happen to you if something goes wrong due to your carelessness?”
“You’ll shoot me in cold blood or suddenly push me into a ravine while I’m busy admiring the magnificent landscape.”
“Not quite. I’m not a murderer. But it will be bad for you, very bad, I can promise you that. I do have my methods. I learned them in Hollywood. My paid goons will beat you to a pulp.”
“That’s what I figured. But you underestimate me. Let’s see who really gets beat up in that fight.”
“Oh, I’m just kidding.”
“Of course you’re only kidding. You are always kidding where I am concerned.”
“Don’t be tragicomic, Mr. Beckford. You have no reason for that. I hope you gave Amy her final instructions precisely.”
“She will appear and disappear like a ghost, with maps or without, with lists or without.”
“While we are talking about this … I hope you have not started anything with Amy. It is never good for business when the boss amuses himself with the secretary.”
“Don’t worry, ma’am. Amy says ‘Good night’ at the mere request of a cup of black coffee.”
“Aha, so you did try, then?”
“Why not, ma’am? She is a woman.”
“A woman? As far as I know she is neither married, nor widowed, nor divorced, and she comes from a good family.”
“Yes, hardware in Eldersville, Kansas.”
“It sounds as if you went pretty far with her?”
“Yes, ma’am, so far that her past has become the despair of my present.”
“Good God, don’t talk nonsense.”
“I’m referring to the title of a movie that caused the utter failure of the date.”
“Well, I’m glad it failed. Don’t seduce a first-class secretary just to turn her into a third-class lover. And just so you know, you’re getting a new secretary. A pretty young girl, who can run errands to the post office and office supply store. As of this morning, Amy is to be my personal secretary with a salary of three hundred dollars a week.”